


Gunpowder Joe and the Ant Kaiser

by AbsolXGuardian



Series: The Book Lays Open, There are Tales to be Told [5]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Body Horror, Borderline RPF, Detailed descriptions of ants, False memories/backstory, Gen, Guilt, MAG 184 Like Ants, Non-consensual supernatural transformation, References to the Underwood Collection, Season 5 (TMA), Slightly more graphic than canon typical body horror, That thing were it feels like ants are moving under your skin except real, The Mechanisms were Jon's band, The Mechanisms!Jon, The Mechanisms!Jordan Kennedy, Unrealitly, Use of canon dialogue/scenes, Very mild au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:53:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27457543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbsolXGuardian/pseuds/AbsolXGuardian
Summary: Things were going well for Jordan Kennedy, well as best as they could after the end of the world. He'd even been spared the nightmares that had haunted him ever since he visited the Magnus Institute. But then, the Entities decided to stop extending him their mercy.
Relationships: Background Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist / Martin Blackwood, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist & Jordan Kennedy
Series: The Book Lays Open, There are Tales to be Told [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1700164
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	Gunpowder Joe and the Ant Kaiser

**Author's Note:**

> I know I said there wouldn't be another installment until after TMA ends, but I needed to incorporate Like Ants into the story.
> 
> Fic name inspired by TheDupshaDove on tumblr.

The Toy Soldier strummed its mandolin as Raphella sang along to it from inside the crowded trailer home as it drove across the wastes.

 _"[Two lines, assembled to fight- each side knows their reason is right. Dictated by the fates and guided by God on high- Let the war decide,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIAupegetU0&ab_channel=TheVoidSings)" _Raphella sang, "That works, finally."

"Oh jolly good," the Toy Soldier replied, clapping its hands together.

"I still don't get why you're trying to make an album from _Orlando Furioso_ , Rachel," Marius said, looking up from Raphella's large paperback copy of that very same book. "We have all of this material around us, we don't have to settle for Italian King Arthur."

"Yeah, and how many of the new songs have we played?" Raphella retorted, "None. Because people don't want a reminder of what the world is like. They want escape. 

"She's right, Kofi," Gunpowder Joe piped in, looking away from the window. "We're not really the Mechanisms- uh don't think too hard about that Toy Soldier- As I was saying, we don't write an album about the horrors of the words we find and then fly off in the _Aurora_."

What Joe didn't make sense, but the Toy Soldier didn't try to figure out what he meant, as was instructed. Its fellow Mechanisms would do things like that sometimes- call each-other by different names or not act like they were immune from real harm. There were a lot of things it didn't want to think about, things in its own memory that didn't make sense, like if they'd ever met Nastya or been on the _Aurora_. 

The Toy Soldier was broken out of its potential existential crisis by a sudden stillness. The movement of the truck over the wastes (never as bumpy as it should be, driving a vehicle not meant for off road through dirt and dead grass, but not as smooth as on a road either) ceased as the engine made a sputtering noise.

Drumbot Brain opened the door to the trailer home a few minutes later. "Uh guys, the truck just ran out of petrol."

" _What_?" Raphella's disbelief hid her fear. 

"The Ceaseless Watcher made this world to feed the Entities," The Toy Soldier said, surprising everyone else. "If it doesn't want you to worry about starvation, then you're not hungry. If petrol is problem now, it's because they don't want us to be able to get away quickly."

"Well you did used to be a monster, so even with your memories all messed up, you probably know what your talking about," Brain replied.

"So we fight," Marius reached under his chair to pull out the antique gun it took from the Slaughter-crazed soldier.

"Seems like it," Raphella grabbed the battle axe she'd used in SCA shows before. The axe, the book, the whole truck set up, and the clothes the Toy Soldier now wore were all part of the random items Raphella found herself with after the Change. She found Brain, Marius, and Joe quickly, despite they were based around London, and she was in the north. And through all the coincidences orchestrated by the Eye- they had their costumes and instruments as well. 

"I'll go out there with you," Joe said, standing up. "We should all. Even if we don't have weapons, we don't want to be trapped. Running away might end up our only option." 

* * *

  
The Toy Soldier stepped out and surveyed the scene. It stood in the front line, apparently unarmed, next to Marius with his gun and Raphella with her axe. It was odd that the Mechanisms didn't have their usual arsenal at hand. Joe and Brain stood behind them, their backs to the trailer. 

In front of them was a domain, the only thing that ever broke up the monotony of the wastes. But all that was visible above ground were a few mounds of dirt and the writhing ground between them. 

Except, that wasn't the ground. The sea of ants surged towards them, bound together in a shared goal. Marius began to shoot, but the ants handily dodged the shot the same size as them. Once the horde had reached them, Raphella began to swing her axe. Perhaps she hit a few, but the rest climbed up the blade or up the loose legs of her trousers and began to bite. 

The Toy Soldier was having the best luck. It struck the ground, slaying countless ants under its plastic hands. But for every slain ant, twenty more climbed over its body. And upon discovering this plastic creature was immune to their bites and strings, they simply crawled over it. 

"GUYS!" Brain shouted, "Jordan was right, we have to run." He shook his top hat, trying to get the ants out of it. 

Marius swore and threw his gun into the massive swarm. "Dammit, you're right. Let's go. Jordan-"

Behind Marius stood Gunpowder Joe, frozen in fear and seemingly a magnet for the ants.

An uncharacteristic independence formed in the Toy Soldier, as while the rest of its comrades stood around, unsure what to do; it began to run.

Raphella saw this. "We got to go, the Toy Soldier has the right idea. We can't save Jordan. We should at least save ourselves."

And the last words they heard from their friend was a sudden shout of "GO!" before Gunpowder Joe slammed his mouth shut to deny entrance to the ants who began to carry him away.

* * *

  
" _He turns the wrong corner, and the ants are upon him once again."_

Unlike all of the other statement readings Martin had brought himself to hear, not wanting to let Jon out of his sight, this had to be one of the hardest to watch. He tried walking away, down one of the tunnels. It wasn't like Jon could loose track of him, at least in this kind of place. But when the sporadic carpeting of ants increased from a few lines to a mass of ants enveloping their screaming victim, Martin just had to turn around and hurry back to his boyfriend. This place, of all domains, wasn't one he wanted to test how far Jon's immunity bubble extended. Especially considering the few times he glanced behind him, he saw ants flowing out of their own sized tunnels into the main one, almost as if to chase him.

When Martin returned, he found Jon staring un-seeing ahead with his regular eyes, while his spectral eyes flared wide- as was normal in this situation. But what wasn't normal were the tears silently flowing down his cheeks, which Jon didn't seem to notice.

"Uh- Jon- uh..." Martin tried to lightly shake Jon out of his trance, but Martin sighed at the lack of immediate reaction. It seemed like what sounded like at least a stopping point for the statement wasn't enough.

"Are you alright?" Jon turned around, casually asking. He didn't even acknowledge the tears he was wiping away as his spectral eyes closed.

"Yeah- I mean- no, just.." Martin stuttered out, not sure how to ask about Jon's crying.

"Don't like ants?" There was no sign of his weeping in Jon's voice.

"Obviously not," Martin scoffed, "No-one likes ants."

"As the embodiment of all knowledge, I am not entirely sure that’s true but… okay. What is it?"

"No, it's just...you know the guy you were talking about? Jordan?"

"Yes my-," Jon stopped himself. "The exterminator?"

"I was having a look around and- I found him. A few tunnels over."

"Yes. I know," there was an unexpected weariness in Jon's reply.

"Sorry, yeah, of course you do. Oh, stupid."

"No, it’s alright. I’ve been trying to… I’m not sure what to do about it." Jon seemed kind of unusually guarded, and Martin didn't really have it in him to push the issue, no matter how unnerving the crying was. So he changed the subject.

"Well, who’s the avatar in charge here then? That Amherst guy?"

"No," Jon's spectral eyes opened slightly, indicating he was accessing the Eye's knowledge. " _John Amherst was encased in concrete, and shriveled away to nothing after just a few years. If they’d unearthed him before the change, maybe, but as it was he was so starved of fear-_ "

"So who, then?"

"Well, I’m not sure if…"

Now that sounded like Jon's more typical evasion of Martin's questions these days. It wasn't about whatever was going on with Jordan. This was his usual 'hiding facts from Martin to protect his precious feelings'. 

"Jon, who is it?" Martin said, almost sounding like he was scolding Jon.

"It’s the ants."

"What?" Martin took a moment to think about it. "Ohhhh, like a, like a huge ant queen or something?"

"No. All of them. As a collective. Crawling, devouring, spreading. One colony, one being, one avatar."

"Right. Great." As if this domain could get any worse. "Nope. Nope. Do not like that one at all. No." Martin took a moment to compose himself before continuing. "Okay. So what happens if you destroy them, then? I mean, if they’re both the avatar and the domain?"

"The whole place would collapse and then, without The Corruption’s influence, I think The Buried would flow in to fill the gap."

"I thought you said Smirke’s Fourteen was a load of bull?" Martin had only just come to terms with that, adjusting his whole perception of the world, after Jon's big speech in the last domain.

"I said it was limited, and draws artificial borders," here he sounded like a lecturing professor, "but it does have its use when it comes to conceptualizing these things."

"Regardless," Jon continued, "I’m pretty sure we’d be left somewhat," he gestured at the tunnels around them, "entombed."

"But we could get out, though?"

"Eventually."

They stood for a few moments in awkward silence, before Jon spoke up, "Martin, do you want me to?" The unspoken was clear.

"No. No, probably not a good idea." Although privately, Martin did have to admit that Jon being willing to delay their journey at his request for vengeance was pretty sexy.

Jon nodded. After a few seconds, he glanced up from his own contemplation to look back at Martin. "Oh, uh, Martin, just one, one second… you got…"

Martin looked to where Jon was pointing and saw some ants crawling up his trousers. He quickly swiped them away. "Definitely one of my least favorites, so far." He looked back up at Jon, "Can we just go, then? Please?"

Jon had already turned back to staring moodily into the middle distance. Martin began making sure to pat down all of his clothes and make sure there were no more ants who had decided to bend the definition of 'safe from harm in the domains', when Jon finally spoke up. "I’m still not sure what to do about Jordan."

Martin stopped his swiping. "I mean, what can we do really? You’ve been pretty clear there’s no way for us to help the people who are trapped here as victims- so, we leave him here like all the others, and eventually we save everyone." He didn't really get why Jon was acting so differently just because Jordan had given a statement.

"Yeah- it's just, I don't usually know them. And the thing is- Jordan didn't just give a statement. He was my friend- back in university. We were in a band  
together. And one of our members, Nikola Orisnov, attacked and stole her larynx from. This-"

"SHE WHAT?"

"Right. You were- otherwise occupied when I finally came to terms with that."

"As I was saying," Jon continued, rushing right past the tension that emerged whenever Martin's time serving Peter Lukas was brought up. "Jessica's assumed disappearance destroyed our friend group. I actually gathered everyone together after Basira and I came back from the artic. I didn't tell them everything, but I let them know about what happened to her. But ever since all this happened, I hadn't really thought about them. They're the only people I really know who aren't tangled up in all this. And I feel bad that I never thought to check on them before. I mean, we've tracked Basira and Daisy. Somehow Melanie and Georgie are in a blindspot. But everyone else, they're in domains- suffering through their own personal hell. I feel like I abandoned them."

"Jon, I get that you're upset. But it's not in your power to save them. And-" Martin suddenly realized where he was going with his attempt at comforting reasoning, but he had to keep going. He couldn't think of any alternative. "This is going to sound harsh, but you haven't failed them anymore then you've failed everyone else. I mean, they're not suffering any worse. And no one else trapped here deserves it either. We know all of this is Elias' fault, not yours. And it isn't your fault that you couldn't help any of the other victims we've seen, so it's not your fault that you can't save your friends either."

"I guess," Jon replied, still looking guilty. 

Martin needed to get them both out of this domain as soon as possible, for the sake of whatever was left of both of their mental wellbeings. "So what are we doing, Jon?"

"I want to see him," Jon's voice held a level of certainty it hadn't for this whole domain.

"Fine. Do your Knowing thing, and then we can-"

"With my eyes." And using his true eyes, once again crying, Jon bored into Martin with a level of intensity he hadn't seen before.

"Okay." Martin was a bit taken aback, "But just so you know, the tunnels to get there are absolutely craw–"

Jon had already started walking in the direct he knew would lead them to Jordan.

"Yeah, okay. Yes, no, yes, you already know," Martin rambled as he started to follow Jon. "Lead on."  


* * *

Jordan Kennedy screamed. He screamed the most horrific and plaintive wails he could have ever imagined. He knew that this place, as surreal as it was, it was more real than the nightmare that once haunted him. But even as the ants crawled into his mouth, he still screamed.

Through some miraculous gap in the chains of ants that bind his whole body, he saw two new figures watching him. His addled brain managed to recognize Jon, just standing, drinking in Jordan's suffering, like he did in the nightmare. "JON- Jon- please," another cry, "Help me!" he begged, even as he doubted this Jon would act any different than he did in the nightmares.

"Jon, what are we doing here?" the other man asked. 

"I don’t..I-" At that moment, every ant that touched Jordan's skin bit him. Needles of white-hot pain shot through him in every direction. He let out a low scream of agony, cutting off Jon.

The wailing continued. Not the shrill shrieks of fear, but the guttural and tear stricken screams of pain. "Help!" "Please!" Jordan cried whenever his mouth wasn't forced open by agony, providing an avenue for some ants to crawl inside of him.

**Ceaseless Watcher, look upon this man.**

As much as Jordan heard those words, and knew they came from Jon, he also felt them deep within himself.

"Jon-" Jordan heard his old friend's companion warn, as Jon continued, speaking through reality itself.

**Subsumed by terror and gripped with swarming fear. Gaze into him, through him. And out of him.**

Suddenly, the writhing of the ants ceased. They changed their course, and began to _burrow_.

Somehow, the pain lessened, like Jordan had been administered an anesthetic. But when you look down and can see ants crawling single file into your veins through small holes on your wrist, you have to scream. Now the ants flowed into him, not over him. The patter of each of their tiny legs was all the more acute when felt by his muscles. Where his veins were too small, raised marks appeared upon his skin, the movement of the close packed ants visible with his naked eye. Those ants who were already inside him, they changed their course and burrowed into his throat. They tore their own path through veins that were too small, towards his jaw. Their damage added to the constellation of forming bruises across his body.

When the ants reached bone, Jordan felt a pain that he had could have never imagined. It cut deep inside. He wanted to reach in, and just get it out. Fling the offending bones as far away as he could, just to stop the pain. But it was the nature, not the intensity that marked this pain as exceptional. Whatever had begun to protect him reached this far as well. Still, this muted pain felt like a violation.

Jordan felt the ants begin to build rooms within the spongey tissue of his marrow. Fractures formed in the bones of his legs, arms, and jaw as their structural integrity was comprised.

(It was okay, he could have them repaired later.)

That was weird. Why had Jordan just thought that?

**Make him a vessel of your hunger, staring out and harvesting with a thousand, thousand, thousand, tiny, eager, eyes.**

Jordan felt his heart grow still. The constant pounding that had become background noise was gone. Somehow, he likewise knew that all of his blood was gone and his bruises would soon fade. The ants had arrived in his heart. In another time, this would have become the brood chamber. But what the ants found were weaver ant larvae, pilled high in the chambers. Within the mixed colony, the ants that resembled minor weaver ant workers (the majors simply wouldn't fit) came forward and took the larvae. Most set off alone towards the cuts and sores, to seal them up. But a few climbed up towards the eyes. 

Those dug their own path as they went, and against thin meat of the face, they left raised lines marking their progress. They had reached the eyes. Jordan, now paralyzed, could only observe as he saw the silhouettes of ants crawl across his eyeballs, as they laid down an almost opaque white film over them.

**Gift him your power and protection. Make him yours.**

Yet as Jordan lost his sight, he gained perception. It became clear that the detailed knowledge he had of how the ants were building a new colony from his body came more from them, then it did from his native senses. What he saw in-front of him, partially obscured, was enhanced by the presence of the ants that remained outside of his body. He could feel the rest of the Anthill, like he once did his own body. 

Jordan gleaned the Colony's memories, how they had taken Leto as an eager vessel before the change. But while Leto had felt their love, under the Eye's auspices, they were free to leave him. They did so, feeling the closest they could to joy at the size of their new vessel. Now they were commanded to put Jordan in Leto's place, a second vessel, one with a mind that was both part of the collective and outside of it, in addition to their domain. But this bond would be inexorable. 

"Jordan?" Jon asked, tentatively.

"What-what is this?" Jordan stuttered out. This... _process_ had only taken a minute, but his perception of time had slowed, making him aware of every detail. His body shook from the feeling of the ants still moving inside him, as he felt the urge to begin to tear through his skin to excise them.

"How do you feel?" Even though his eyesight was still obscured, somehow Jordan began to make out more and more details as time went by. He saw the tear streaks on Jon's face, his friend must have been crying this whole time.

"I don't know. Jon why- why are you here. What is this?"

"Yeah, I'm curious about that myself." Jon's companion spoke up, his arms crossed, clearly annoyed.

"What did you do to me?" Jordan kept begging for answers. "I feel-" He hugged himself with his arms, now more acutely aware of the ants moving under his skin. He also sensed more ants flowing into his body through the holes in his legs.

"Better?" Jon hoped.

"Sick," disgust rose in Jordan's throat, "like I-"

_Leto was where Jordan had left him, consumed by grief and despair for the murders he had committed. Terror filled him, the dread that he might end up murdering more beings._

_Laertes screamed in pain as the ants burrowed into his bones. They did not take the care they took with a future colony, and the blood pooled into a sticky mess below him. Yet there was always more blood. The ants would burrow under his skin, leaving pustules he was compelled to scratch open, revealing ants that flowed out. Between cycles, when the ants evacuated his body, he thought of the damaged bones they left behind, the kind that would leave him in a wheelchair for months and baffle doctors with their patterns. He knew that was what would happen. And he wished he had noticed that his own child had been infected, and gotten them help before it came to what it had, all those years ago._

_Ants marched over Rebecca. They did not burrow, they did not sting, they did not bite. But they continued their journey, a constant blanket over her flesh, as she twitched and trashed in reaction to each of those little legs, sending waves of wrongness through her body._

Such visions and more washed over Jordan. By now, he saw the whole extent of the Anthill in his mind's eye just as well as he "saw" Jon in-front of him. All the pain, grief, despair, and fear bombarded him, forcing him lower onto the ground while he clutched his head. But it also felt...nourishing. Like the first real meal he had since the end of the world had left him in a neither hungry nor full, neither rested nor exhausted limbo. The last of the pain from his earlier torment was washed away in the echoes of the pain of others.

"What, what was that?" Jordan brought his head out of his hands as the horror he felt faded to background stimuli.

" _You’re seeing it,_ " Jon replied, a strange menace in his voice, " _Feeling it all, the fear of all the others here._ "

"All that screaming…" Jordan stared at his hands, as if he could see the blood now on them. "They’re everywhere… crawling over them, like they did me… It feels…"

"Good?" Jon sounded desperate.

Jordan paused for a moment. He thought about the nourishing feeling of all that fear. His primeval mind did like it. Somehow, feeling another's fear felt much more positive than experiencing it yourself. All the disgust came from the ethical part of him, who couldn't partake in this poisoned meal. "Yeah, but wrong, sick. What did you do to me?"

"I helped you." 

"Helped me?" Rage began to build within Jordan. "I don’t feel right, I, I just-"

_Leto digging a shallow grave with his broken finger nails for some of the ants he killed._

Jordan flinched at the image that forced itself from the background. "No I don’t-" he tried again.

_*Images of that terrible day when his child buckled over and ants flowed out of them ran through Laertes' head._

"I don't want this!" Jordan managed to spit out.

"Jordan?" The other man said, "Jordan, just relax, it’ll be fine, you’ll be okay."

He whipped around to face Jon's companion. "No, I don’t...I didn’t ask for this!"

"You preferred the ants," a bitter Jon replied.

"No!" Fear shot through Jordan at the possibility of returning to his previous state.

" _Covered and agonized?_ " Jon said, suddenly sounding different, before returning to his normal voice, full of sympathy and pity for his friend, instead of some emotion foreign to Jordan. "I know how scared you were, I felt it."

"It was..." Memories ran through Jordan's head, this time drawn from the colony's memories instead. No, he pushed it back, lest he become overwhelmed. "It was a nightmare. And I couldn’t wake up. But, this is- I don’t understand…"

"I'll try to explain," Jon offered. Jordan noticed that what seemed to be some...aura Jon possessed was actually a halo of just closed eyes, which began to open more as Jon spoke. " _The world is over. Dark powers that feed on fear have transformed everything we know into a twisted hellscape, where humanity is tormented to feed their hunger. We’re all trapped, but I have a certain level of power in this new world. So, I-_ "

"You turned me into what? A torturer?" Jordan's boiling righteous anger broke Jon from his partial trance.

"Yes," he replied.

"Why?"

"Good question," Despite the way the other man acted, Jordan still didn't feel like he was on his side. It was his tone. He was annoyed, but that was it. He acted like Jon had made some kind of impulse purchase of a pet. He didn't understand the enormity of this situation, an enormity which threatened to overwhelm Jordan. "Jon? Care to enlighten us?"

"What was I supposed to do?" Jon retorted, before turning back to Jordan. "You're my friend. I didn't want to watch you suffer."

"It’s what you’ve been doing for everyone else. It’s what you’re expecting him to do," the other man responded, punctuating his point by gesturing towards Jordan.

"I don’t…I don’t know how to _be_ this," Jordan realized that by now all of the ants within the room had assembled into neat little rows behind him, awaiting his command. "I don’t want to scare people."

"No. But you’ll learn," The enormity of the guilt Jon had left unspoken, Jordan could only guess at.

Jordan considered the ants behind him, the ants inside him, and the ants extending throughout the tunnels of his domain. They were as much a part of him now as any other part of his body, and their instincts and automatic actions were the same as breathing. If he wanted to, he could take control of them.

"Am I still me?" he asked, dreading the answer.

"I don’t know how to answer that."

Jon thought for a moment, before speaking, finally sounding like the man Jordan knew from uni. "I could put you back if you want. You could become a victim again, rather than complacent."

That possibility filled Jordan with panic, the kind he could never surmount. His own self-preservation instinct would turn Jordan into a vessel of grief and guilt before allowing him to return. "No. This isn’t- I didn’t want this. But I can’t, I can’t go back to that. I _can’t._ "

"Very well."

"I’m sorry. It's-" Jon's companion stage-whispered to Jordan, sounding almost embarrassed by Jon's actions. "It's a lot to take in all at once."

An idea occurred to Jordan. "Can I at least go outside? Can I leave these tunnels, the ants?" He asked Jon. Maybe he could go find the Mechanisms again. He could leave behind just enough ants to keep the Anthill running, maybe running a skeleton crew could even grant the victims some relief. Then he could go see the rest of his friends. They accepted what was left of Jessica being a weird mannequin, they could accept him being some kind of ant monster. "Am I free?"

"You’re part of them now. And they’re a part of you."

"And everyone else? I haven't seen Basira, but before I was trapped here, the other Mechs still in England traveled with me, through the wastelands."

"Basira is free. She has her own journey to make," Jon replied. "As for the rest-" His halo of eyes opened again, as he paused to think.

"Morgan, Nastya, and Maki- they're all trapped in domains. I can give you the details-"

"No, I don't need them."

"I thought not. As for everyone else, they're still together and as well off as one could hope to be here. I didn't even realize people could exist outside of domains before now. It's just. It's hard to explain, but you know when you try to project old film that's had holes burned into it. That's what it looks like to me, there's something that I can't see."

Jordan had a pretty good idea about what that might be, but if the Toy Soldier was protected from Jon's whole 'all-seeing-eye' trick, it was probably for a good reason. And he had no patience to try to explain it to Jon now.

"I’m sorry, the world is," Jon had taken Jordan's lack of response as despair at the failings of his own powers, "It’s bad all over. I just wanted to spare you what I could."

"Yeah." 

"Because-" Jon closed his real eyes for a moment to steady himself. "Because you're my friend. I owed you."

Jordan forced himself onto his feet, the ants in his legs scurrying to support the sections of bone they hadn't finished repairing yet. "Please. Leave."

"Jordan, I-"

"I'd like to be alone."

"Of course," Jon surrendered, he and his friend began to leave.

"No wait," Jordan realized, prompting Jon to stop and turn around. He had wanted to be alone, take time to process it, but there were all these little minds appended to his own, using his brain to process their own communications and sending him a constant flow of input. "I'll never be alone again, will I?"

"Come on Jon," Jon's friend said, tugging at his sleeve. "We should just go."

Jordan let them take a few steps away without a reply, before another thought occurred to him.

"The ants- if I told them to attack you, could they?"

"No," Jon turned around, "nothing can really touch us anymore."

**Author's Note:**

> Before this fic, I'd just said the reason why Jon didn't know about Nikola/The Toy Soldier was because Jon hadn't thought to look. But of course, Jordan would absolutely ask Jon for an update. So now it's that when the explosion happened, Nikola was thrown into the Entities' realm. This severed her connection with the Stranger and put her in a similar fear immune situation like Georgie.
> 
> Jessica Law really did make an album based on the Italian epic poem Orlando Furioso (https://jessicalaw.bandcamp.com/album/lovers-and-fighters), although no other Mechanisms members participated. I recommend checking it out, one because it's good. Two, because the more people who know about Bradamante the better. 
> 
> The details of Jordan's transformation was inspired by the TMA fan continuation podcast The Underwood Collection, which you should absolutely also check out (https://pitchlibrary.tumblr.com). Laertes is also a reference to the series. He's meant to be the protagonist (Ulysses') father, who almost got turned into an ant Colony Avatar.


End file.
